Russia allocated nearly $1 billion for propaganda in 2016

According to Forbes, Russia allocated nearly 61 billion rubles ($900 million) from their 2016 budget towards propagandist media. This makes the state the largest donor of the Russian media market.

This amount was received by both state-owned and private media organizations. Approximately 60% to 70% of the money is obtained in the form of subsidies. The rest of the funds are distributed between newspapers, magazines and TV channels once they win tenders for the placement of informational materials, and in the form of grants.

The biggest part of the budget was given to the VGTRK media group. According to Forbes, subsidies amounting to 21.8 billion rubles were given to the group to ensure the operation and production of programs in 2016. The Russia Today TV channel is in second place with a total of 17.5 billion rubles being received. The Russia Segodnya media group is in third position with over 6 billion rubles being received.

The state also finances the activities of news agencies such as TASS, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Obshchestvennoye Televideniye Rossii TV channel and several others. Most of these agencies do not generate significant revenue.